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Joining Patrol - The French way

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Claude B wrote:
Well done snowHead

Training here last week, I wouldn't have wanted to be in some of the sleds, going at hell of a speed Shocked


It's going to take a while for the bruising to go away that I recived from being the Victim in training.....many of my classmates had the style you describe....I perfer full tortoise mode.
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Woo Hoo!
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Dave of the Marmottes wrote:
Well done. Skiing in France just got a little bit more reassuring.
The rest of the patrol world tend to agree with you, it's the one french qualification that is excepted any skiing country in the world.
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We had a half day of major avalanche exersize along with a do team, a couple of mountain doctors and a few others, Basicaly how our skils fit into working as a big team. Beacons first + Recco, then dogs then probe line. Dig teams and doctors to elp with extraction. Team leader, secratary and radio control to keep it all orgonised. Idea to go from aleart to everyone found in under 5 min and everyone evacuated in 30. We were not that quick but we understood how it could be done.



Recco, I played with one of those 10 kg huge board things 20 or so years ago, this is the current one. Works about as well as a beacon of 25 years ago - analoge and 20m max range BUT it works without the victim wearing a beacon, so good for finding idiots....sometimes dead idiots.



Brand new rescue sleds vs low tide off piste + rough traineeies. Luckily I know a thing or 2 about fiberglass repair - took me best part of a wekend to fix, they all go bashed up again next day, but only one got properly destroyed.



Almost without exeception every serious case gets extracted in a vaccum matteres, this was one of our early attempts outside...I France an unconicious victim gets put in a Vac mat in the recovery positon, then if no medical evac available (weather, major road acident/other disaster) put in a doubble ender and carted down the hill.

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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
@Idris, congrats!
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You'll need to Register first of course.
That is a fine achievement, very well done.... Enjoy the new career.. snowHead snowHead
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
congrats, huge respect!! I'm also considering a career change but can't see a job in the Alps working out for me sadly!!
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
Idris, Again, much respect. Enjoy the new mountain life.

Its really interesting reading about the training.
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 You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
@Idris, congratulations, that’s a splendid achievement.
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 Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
@Idris, Hope you keep sharing your activities, with pics/vids etc. We’d all like to follow along. Definitely need your own thread - Adventures of Idris.
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 snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
This is just the sort of thread I love to read on Snowheads. Congratulations @Idris looking forward to reading more of your posts
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 And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
@Idris, well done!
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 So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
Grats, bro.
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
@Idris, congrats! Just hope I'm never in need of your services, but good to know there's guys like you about if I do!! Very Happy
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
@Idris, congrats, that's a helluva achievement. Covid aside, are there patroller job vacancies available?
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Idris wrote:
Friday I had my final exam - I passed.
Many congratulations, that's well deserved.
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Congrats @Idris!

Someone at work asked me recently what my perfect career would be...I hadn't really thought about it for a while, but after mulling it over I realised if I could be anything I'd probably choose Ski Patrol. So it's super-interesting to read about your experiences, many thanks for sharing @Idris. And please keep us updated....it'd be great to hear more about life as a fully paid-up pro patroller (think that's as close as I'll get now!).

One thing: you might want to take down the pic of the certificate (or redact it) - there's info on there you don't really want to leave lying around on the internet (and we can all vouch for the fact you passed now! snowHead


Last edited by Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person on Mon 21-12-20 19:51; edited 2 times in total
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Da Iawn ond bendigedig! just doing the phtls/atls in French would be hard enough, Im glad I did mine in English! with UK MRT/BASP.
Where did you do the first responder course- In Chamonix or Briancon area? You may have met Sandrine Gioani?


Last edited by Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see? on Mon 21-12-20 20:05; edited 1 time in total
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@Idris, Chapeau
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Markhandford wrote:
Da Iawn ond bendigedig! just doing the phtls/atls in French would be hard enough, Im glad I did mine in English! with UK MRT/BASP.
Where did you do the first responder course- In Chamonix or Briancon area? You may have met Sandrine Gioani?


Serre Che with Sandrine Wink
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You'll need to Register first of course.
Fantastic
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Great work Idris keep it up (and the updates..really interesting)
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
Well done. Great job.
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 You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
Well done @Idris
I hope not to be a customer of yours any time soon wink
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 Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
@Idris, just caught up on your news. Monumentally impressed. Congratulations.
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 snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
Respect. Congratulations!
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 And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
Made into the news (the course not me) https://www.ledauphine.com/education/2020/12/22/clap-de-fin-sur-la-formation-des-pisteurs-de-2020
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 So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much

http://youtube.com/v/lQmqorFcW_c

Group avie training.
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
Do you get any training/support on the psychological aspects? A friend here is a pisteur. 4 or 5 years ago we had a big slide on a closed piste and 3 were killed, 2 were teenagers. They were buried 5 or 6 metres down and all pisteurs, instructors and many local volunteers were involved in the search which went on all afternoon into the evening. It was made worse as after 3 bodies were recovered they (wrongly) believed that others were still buried. Antoine came into the bar straight off the mountain and I've never seen anyone look as mentally and physically drained and he's been doing it for 30 years. I bought him a beer and left him to his thoughts.
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
@Idris,

congratulations snowHead

Obviously being a solid skier is pretty important, but just out of curiosity, what is with the skiing test criteria? Are french patrollers training for rescuing people from Olympic events? wink
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
@stuarth, The racing bit of the test isn't particularly difficult, I easily get the standard stated in the first post and Idris was a fair bit better than me when we were kids. I would guess that the real test is the timed off-piste descent.
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
@Claude B,

After an avalanche incident a few years ago Tignes offered counselling to anyone who needed it.
Lots of people came to help but the sight of a body affects each of us in a different way.
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
@Claude B,

After an avalanche incident a few years ago Tignes offered counselling to anyone who needed it.
Lots of people came to help but the sight of a body affects each of us in a different way.
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 You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Claude B wrote:
Do you get any training/support on the psychological aspects? A friend here is a pisteur. 4 or 5 years ago we had a big slide on a closed piste and 3 were killed, 2 were teenagers. They were buried 5 or 6 metres down and all pisteurs, instructors and many local volunteers were involved in the search which went on all afternoon into the evening. It was made worse as after 3 bodies were recovered they (wrongly) believed that others were still buried. Antoine came into the bar straight off the mountain and I've never seen anyone look as mentally and physically drained and he's been doing it for 30 years. I bought him a beer and left him to his thoughts.


Yes, or rather my course (GRETA), we were split into half group (13 instead of 26). and did a full day with a physchological (sp?) nurse. We covered dealing with incidents from a victim and and rescuer point of view, but more than half the time was Q/A interaction. Also part of the first day was making sure everyone understood what the job entailis and what you are getting into. - I was lucky, unlike most of my class mates I am a fair bit older and I've been there and done that. And unfortunatley lost 10+ close friends to the mountains over the years.
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
stuarth wrote:
@Idris,

congratulations snowHead

Obviously being a solid skier is pretty important, but just out of curiosity, what is with the skiing test criteria? Are french patrollers training for rescuing people from Olympic events? wink


The racing bit is the seccond highest level in a regular ESF race club event, not too tough but a cakewalk.

The off piste test, took me 4 goes. Mostly because I didn't know what they wanted to see, As I am a fairly comptetet skier. There is a fairly valid reason for the toughness of the test. To do the job properly you need to be able to ski anything in any conditions regardless of how tired you are, at the same time controling 100+kg of broken person and sled.
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@Idris, Sad yes very tough. A local instructor who everyone here knew died with a client in an avalanche a couple of years ago. After a couple of days of mourning everyone got on with their work although he will never be forgotten.
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